Proposed nuclear waste dump in Flinders Ranges – an urgent issue for South Australians, and all Australians

“We do not have a position on the sites in South Australia for a NATIONAL NUCLEAR WASTE facility. However, we do have a position on LUCAS HEIGHTS, (NSW). We need to get the nuclear waste out of there because it’s TOO DANGEROUS to keep the nuclear waste in densely populated metropolitan Sydney.”

Extract from “Economic Priorities Document”. South Australian Government.
“South Australian food, wine and beverages are world class and our unique regions, products and the CLEAN, GREEN ENVIRONMENT that they come from provides the COMPETITIVE EDGE required to secure and maintain PREMIUM status in our markets of choice.”

I have endeavoured to engage our State politicians on both sides for over a year now, to publicly speak to the people of South Australia on this issue, yet their silence is confounding and shameful. The nuclear waste proposed for South Australia is for both low level and intermediate level. Exposure to intermediate level nuclear waste, is 100% fatal with life expectancy of 4 -6 weeks. It will remain radioactive for 10,000 years. The Federal Government are targeting KIMBA in our farming land and The Flinders Ranges in the heart of tourism. The Flinders Ranges site will be just 10kms from Wilpena Pound! The waste will be stored for up to 100 years, above ground in a tin shed in one of the most seismic areas in Australia and prone to regular severe flooding. The floods waters in 1989 entered Spencer Gulf.

All South Australian’s need to be involved and told the truth about the Federal Government’s proposal for our state, as it will go beyond tarnishing our reputation that so many South Australian’s have worked hard for, but more so this proposal is both immediately and transcendingly dangerous for all Australians.
This decision is so catastrophically wrong it demands to be challenged by all of us, including our politicians. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/

FEDERALSubmissions about the proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges. The Standing Committee on Environment and Energy are accepting submissions to the ‘Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia’ until 16 September 2019. Please write your own submission or use FOE’s online proforma.

Nuclear facilities, including power stations and radioactive waste dumps, are now banned in Queensland.

Nuclear facilities banned under the Act include:

·nuclear reactors (whether used to generate electricity or not);

·uranium conversion and enrichment plants;

·nuclear fuel fabrication plants;

·spent fuel processing plants; and

·facilities used to store or dispose of material associated with the nuclear fuel cycle e.g. radioactive waste material.

Exemptions under the legislation include facilities for the storage or disposal of waste material resulting from research or medical purposes, and the operation of a nuclear-powered vessel.

1 FEDERALSubmissions about the proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges. The Standing Committee on Environment and Energy are accepting submissions to the ‘Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia’ until 16 September 2019. Please write your own submission or use FOE’s online proforma.

Australia has long rejected nuclear power, and it is banned in Federal and State laws. The nuclear lobby is out to first repeal those laws, and then to get the Australian government to commit to buying probably large numbers of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) . This could mean first importing plutonium and/or enriched uranium, as some reactor models, (thorium ones) require these to get the fission process started. That would, in effect, mean importing nuclear wastes.

There’s an all-too short period for people to send in Submissions to the 4 Parliamentary Inquiries now in progress.